the Complexion Connexion

The following is a reprint of an op-ed piece by Mark Rogers, Communications Director of Cape Wind, the private-sector organization presently proposing the first off-shore wind-farm in the United States on Horseshoe Shoal in the Nantucket Sound south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

The United States can increase its use of wind power over the next two
decades to supply twenty percent of the nation’s electricity without
any technological breakthroughs, according to a first-of-its-kind
report issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last month.

The report entitled, "20% Wind Energy by 2030" [PDF, link not provided in the original -ed.], forecasts that target can
be met with 300 gigawatts of installed wind power in the United States
assuming that electric demand also increases by 39 percent.

According to the report, the DOE expects coastal states to harness
50,000 megawatts of offshore wind in shallow water depths of less than
100 feet. The report notes for some coastal states (like
Massachusetts) shallow water offshore wind can provide 100 percent of
the electricity supply.

The DOE further states that increasing the use of wind power to supply
20 percent of the nation’s electricity would reduce carbon dioxide
emissions (that contribute to climate change) from the electricity
generation sector by 25 percent while creating up to a half million new
American jobs.

This increased use of wind power would allow the U.S. to reduce its use
of natural gas by 50 percent and its use of coal by 18 percent to
generate electricity, according to the DOE, and this would improve
energy independence and national security. The report notes that
without this increased use of wind power the U.S. would substantially
increase its use of natural gas for electricity generation, with heavy
reliance upon imported liquid natural gas (the greatest suppliers of
which will be Iran, Qatar and Russia).

Finally, the DOE notes that increased use of wind
power will benefit Americans by making the price of the energy more
stable and less vulnerable to the price volatility seen from fossil
fuels. While the cost of building all new forms of
electrical generation including wind power has increased considerably,
at least the fuel cost of wind will always be stable, at zero.

Locally, some have argued that we should put aside shallow water
offshore wind projects and instead wait for deepwater projects.
The U.S. Department of Energy takes a very different view in its new
report:

“Shallow water wind
turbine projects have been proposed and could be followed by
transitional and finally deepwater turbines. These paths should not be
considered as mutually exclusive choices. Because there is a high
degree of interdependence among them, they should be considered a
sequence of development that builds from a shallow water foundation of
experience and knowledge to the complexities of deeper water.”

We at Cape Wind were pleased recently to see that over 41,000 (of the
42,000) written comments received by the Minerals Management Service on
their Environmental Impact Statement were in support of our project
moving forward. While we recognize that in this day in age that
any energy infrastructure project will face opposition, we note that
two recent independent polls found statewide support for Cape Wind at
86 percent and that support on the Cape and Islands is growing.

We hope to complete permitting by the end of this year, and we look
forward to one day providing 75 percent of the electricity needs of the
Cape and Islands from the clean and inexhaustible winds on Horseshoe
Shoal.

As America’s first offshore wind farm, Cape Wind would help make
Massachusetts a global leader in offshore renewable energy while also
helping the United States move toward the goal of supplying 20 percent
of its electricity from the power of wind.